Spinal cord injuries can be medically devastating events which may leave victims partially or completely paralyzed below the level of the injury. Many spinal cord injuries are presently irreversible.
Axial compressive type neck injuries are an example of a particularly devastating type of spinal cord injury. Alternate terms for an axial compression injury include a vertebral compression fracture, axial compression fracture, axial compression burst fracture, or an axial load injury. Cervical spine injuries of this type at the C1 or C2 vertebrae are frequently fatal, and injuries at the C3-C7 vertebrae frequently result in paralysis.
Axial compressive type neck injuries may result from an inverted fall onto one's head, or a head-first impact with, for example, another person, or another object such as a wall, a swimming pool floor or the roof of a car. This type of injury may occur in accidents, falls and/or collisions in a wide range of activities including, without limitation, accidents, falls and/or collisions involving vehicles, such as bicycles, automobiles, motorcycles and the like, accidents, falls and/or collisions which occur in sports, such as skateboarding, rollerblading, skiing, snowboarding, hockey, football, equestrian events, swimming, diving. This type of injury may also result from an accidental fall from heights or the like. Many of such activities already involve the use of an engineered interface, such as a helmet or an automobile roof, between the head and the contact surface. Current designs for such engineered interfaces have had limited utility in preventing neck injuries.
Most current designs for helmets and other protective headgear are primarily designed to protect the head (e.g. from impact). These prior art headgear designs offer limited, if any, protection for the neck. Current helmet designs are effective in protecting against head injury due to linear acceleration and object penetration, but are more limited in what protection may be offered to the cervical spine. Typical helmet designs include an outer shell which may be fabricated from a variety of materials. Such materials may include composites such as Kevlar™ (aramid fiber), carbon fibre reinforced plastics, glass reinforced plastics, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic, polycarbonate plastics and the like. Prior art helmets typically include two layers of inner padding within their outer shell. The most immediate to the scalp may be referred to as a comfort liner and is typically made of low density foam. The intermediate padding layer (between the outer shell and the comfort liner) typically comprises an energy-absorbing material, such as expanded polystyrene or the like. The intermediate padding layer in motorcycle helmets typically has a density of 50-60 g/liter.
Some examples of modified helmet designs are known in the prior art. Such modified helmet designs include:    US patent publication No. 2004/0168246 (Phillips);    U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,862 (Rush, III);    U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,330 (Carveth); and    US patent publication No. 2004/1904194.
There is a general desire for protective headgear and/or related apparatus for mitigating spinal cord injuries. By way of non-limiting example, such spinal cord injuries may include the type associated with axial compression and fracture of the spine resulting in deformation and injury to the spinal cord.